Church at 1 o’clock

It has now been 8 months of having church at one o’clock with our three little guys and it’s not getting much easier! Blake and I know we have nothing to complain about with a beautiful church building that is like 1 minute from our house but we kinda have been dreading Sunday’s this whole year. Today Robbie was up way too early and Jace didn’t nap so everyone was extra grumpy. Lee at least took a little nap through Relief Society so I got to stay and listen. We hurried home and had a quick dinner of steak sandwiches and got the boys down for a much needed bedtime and now blake is making us a cake cause that’s what ya need after a long Sunday!:)

Where did the summer go??

I still can't believe that it is the middle of August.  Where did the summer go?  No seriously where did it go?? It has been a crazy few months and not necessarily in the way we planned, which I guess is how it always goes. 

June was kind of a hard month because it was full of reliving memories of last summer.  It is hard to believe it had been a year since watching my dad slowly pass away.  So every week in June just brought back a lot of hard memories.  Towards the end of June I kept thinking, okay now summer can finally start...and it did with Robbie getting sick and then me getting sick.  Luckily Robbie bounced back really fast.  I, on the other hand, got the worst cold/flu/ear/sinus infection ever! After about a week and a half of feeling awful, I finally went into the doctor and got an antibiotic and after another several days was starting to feel like myself again and could actually start smelling and tasting food for the first time in weeks.  

As the weekend was about to start, I remember thinking, okay we are in the middle of July, now summer can really start...and Friday night I went to bed with my stomach kind of hurting, but didn't think much of it.  I woke up on Saturday with a lot of pain in my stomach.  I kept thinking it would go away, but instead just kept getting worse.  Finally by the afternoon it was getting to the point where I couldn't really function anymore so we decided it was probably best to get it checked out.  We hurried and dropped Robbie off at my mom's and rushed to the ER.  After lots of tests the doctors figured out it was my appendix and that I needed to get it out.  Blake and I just kept saying, what just happened?? Definitely was not in the plans for that Saturday or any Saturday I guess:) 

The next week was an adventure taking care of Robbie without being able to lift him.  My poor mom would come over before and after naps to lift him for me.  But after a couple weeks, I started to feel a lot better and able to take care of him normally again.

So now we are in August and I feel like summer should have just started!:) Blake and I have been trying to fill in as much summer fun as we can in this last little while.  We've gone on walks, took Robbie swimming several times, played outside with cousins and friends, and plan to do as much as we can for the next couple months before it starts getting cold.  

As I've thought about how these last few months have been crazy, I've realized how blessed we've been through them.  I'm so grateful that the day I had my appendix attack, Blake was home and able to get me to the hospital.  The weeks before he had been gone on Saturdays either working or taking his 1st CPA exam (which he passed!!:)). It would have been so scary going through the crazy pain trying to take care of Robbie and not being able to get a hold of Blake, so I'm so grateful if it had to happened it did on that particular day.  We've had such sweet family members and neighbors that have helped and brought food and meals and been so supportive.  And throughout this summer we've been able to see a lot of extended family and old friends which has been so fun and much needed.  I feel like I keep learning lessons of what really matters and how even through trials, Heavenly Father is still blessing us.  Happy Summer!:)

California Vacation

Since Blake's dad works in the travel business, Blake and I have been blessed to get to go on several vacations since we've been married.  We love traveling and it's something we save up for and make sacrifices in other areas so that we can go.  I love just getting to spend all day, every day of the trip with Blake and not having other things like work or school get in the way. After we had Robbie we decided we still wanted to make travel a priority and really wanted him to be a part of our vacation because we knew it'd be hard to leave him.

We planned a trip to California during the hard winter months - it was something to keep us excited and looking forward to when Blake would graduate from school and also be done with busy season at work.  We had gone to Huntington Beach last year and loved it and so we decided to try Newport Beach, but this time we were going to make it a road trip.  I grew up only having been on an airplane a couple times, when we went on vacations we always drove.  Blake on the other hand because of his dad's business, flew everywhere.  So this was new to Blake and was his longest road trip by far.

I knew things would be different traveling with an 8 month old, but I didn't quite realize HOW different it would be.  Even just packing for a little person for a week takes so much more planning than it does for two adults.  So just getting on the road felt like I had already accomplished a feat.  Robbie did great for the most part in the car and so we were really lucky.  We stopped in St. George and stayed with Blake's grandparents so they could meet Robbie.  They were so sweet with him and Robbie just loved them! The first night we were there I think Blake and I both realized we weren't going to be having a very relaxing vacation like we were used to in the past.  Robbie has gotten very used to having his own room (and so have we:)) so having him in our room again was definitely a challenge. None of us slept very well- mostly because we were worried whenever he would make a noise that he'd wake Blake's grandparents.  That same worry continued when we got to our hotel in California since there were people above us, below us and to both sides of us.  Everything revolved around Robbie's nap schedules and bedtime- so at first it was a little discouraging when we couldn't fit in the things we wanted to do.

After a day in California we both kind of reached a point where we realized things were different, but it was okay.  We were still on a fun vacation and we were together as a family and so we were going to make the best of it and have an enjoyable time.  After that we had a lot more fun- going on walks on a trail by the hotel (which Robbie loved), playing shuffleboard, sitting by the pool, walking on the beach, and reading in the room while Robbie napped. It wasn't the exact same as our other trips, and that was okay.  Our vacation revolved around an 8 month old and we loved it:) I realized why I loved going on vacations in the past was because I got to just spend all my time with Blake and that hadn't changed- I now got to spend all my time with my two favorite boys who I'm very grateful for!! I'm grateful for a little boy that is teaching me so many lessons!  Here's some pictures from the trip.

Robbie loved his great-grandparents!

This little man turned 8 months old on our trip-
can't believe he is getting so big!!

Playing some shuffleboard at the hotel- I may or may
not have been really bad:)

Robbie was the perfect little audience for our game

Going for our morning walk on the trail

FREEZING at the beach!

Robbie loved to kick in the water

So tired after his week long vacation!

"Sisters are the perfect best friend"

Today's my sister Amy's birthday and how grateful I am for her!

Sometimes when I was younger I really wanted more siblings.  If Amy was gone or not wanting to play then I was on my own. Even now there are times that I think it'd be fun to have a bigger family when we all get together. But I also realized how just having it be my sister and I was a blessing in a way because it made the two of us really close.

Getting me ready for Senior Prom

I've always loved having someone to look up to and see go through everything first in life.  Having her share insights and advice made going through many transitions in my life so much easier.


She's always been there for me. I still remember going away from home for my first time to girls camp when I was twelve years old, and getting a little homesick.  My sweet sister who is a little over three years older then me, took time away from her friends to talk with and reassure me and just having her there made everything better.  I remember having bouts of homesickness when I was away at college. Luckily Aim lived in the same town and many times would cancel her plans just so we could have a girls night and catch up when I was having a hard day.

Welcoming me home at the airport

Having our annual Christmas sleepover

Even got to pregnant at the same time:)

She always been there to help me: doing my hair for all the high school dances and my wedding, encouraging me through hard times in my pregnancy and new role as a mom, being strong through difficult days after losing our dad, and reminding me of memories that make me laugh. She understands and shares my sense of humor.  She's been through lives ups and downs with me and always supported me.


I love her and am so grateful Heavenly Father knew I needed a big sister.

Especially grateful for Easter this year

Easter is such a special holiday.  I can't say I've always focused on the true meaning of Easter- sometimes the chocolate, eggs, and delicious food caught more of my attention, especially as a kid.  But this year the fact that we are celebrating that the Savior lives- that He died and was resurrected and because of that we all will be resurrected means so much more to me.  

    

Today marks ten months since my dad passed away.  I've been missing him a lot lately.  It just seems like everything has been reminding me of him: fixing stuff around the house in ways that he taught me, eating some of his favorite foods, listening to oldies music that we had on our old jukebox as a kid. I still sometimes have the thought that I need to call him to check in or tell him about something funny I saw. I really miss talking to him.

I took Robbie up to my dad's grave today to put some Easter flowers on it and to just sit and think.  I miss my dad and some days are still really hard.  I am so grateful though that physical death is just a temporary thing, that because the Savior died and was resurrected, I will see my dad again.  And what is even more comforting is knowing that he won't have all the pains and frustrations that came with the disease he had here, but that he will be free from that. And I can't wait for that day.  

Because of the Savior, we can see our loved ones again and for that I am very very grateful. Happy Easter!

Gratitude

Gratitude.  I've been thinking about it a lot lately.  Mostly because I have been feeling very ungrateful.  Life has just been crazy for it seems like way too long and it is so easy to focus on the things you are lacking or the things you wish you could change.  My husband Blake started his masters last fall the same week our first son was born.  Blake was so busy working hard for us in school and with work that he was gone a lot and I felt so overwhelmed as a new mom.  I kept thinking it would get better, but then tax season started and he was gone even more.  Having him leave early each morning and get home late each night was wearing on us both.  During those long lonely days at home with our sweet, but very busy little boy, I would sometimes start to feel sorry for myself and had a hard time focusing on all that I had been blessed with.  It kinda came as a slap in the face the last few weeks as I listened to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' General Conference and heard one of the leaders of the church talk about the importance of gratitude.  President Dieter F. Uchtdorf talked about how important it was to be grateful even when we may not feel like we have a lot to be grateful for.  In in his talk he said, 

 "Everyone’s situation is different, and the details of each life are unique. Nevertheless, I have learned that there is something that would take away the bitterness that may come into our lives. There is one thing we can do to make life sweeter, more joyful, even glorious. We can be grateful! It might sound contrary to the wisdom of the world to suggest that one who is burdened with sorrow should give thanks to God. But those who set aside the bottle of bitterness and lift instead the goblet of gratitude can find a purifying drink of healing, peace, and understanding."

How simple but powerful that is!! It definitely was something I needed to hear.  I realized that I was unhappy so much of the time because I wasn't choosing to focus on being grateful for all that my Heavenly Father had blessed me with.

 

I also have been reading a book this last week about a woman that went through a tragic accident but has become stronger because of it.  She chose to focus on the positive when it would have been so much easier not to. I kept thinking, if she can be positive after all she's been through, why can't I??  I started to think more about the things I am so grateful for and I realize I have SO many!! I decided if I wrote them down maybe I would do better at recognizing all that I've been blessed with.  So that is my idea for this blog.  I really don't know how to blog, but I'm determine to figure this out and to really focus on how very good life is. 

So today I'm grateful it's the end to tax season!! After marrying an accountant, I think April 15th will become a holiday in my family!! It was crazy to me how much I used to take having Blake home on Saturdays for granted, until he was no longer home on Saturdays.  Last weekend he was able to come home by around lunch time on Saturday and I can't tell you how much I loved it. We did yard work, took Robbie to the doctor, fixed up things around the house, and did laundry together and I have never enjoyed those things so much! It's funny how much I have to be grateful for but just don't always realize it until it's no longer there.

I'm very grateful for my two boys that I can never seem to get enough time with. But I honestly wouldn't have it any other way.

Robbie is so glad his daddy is home!!! Happy April 15th!!!